Field not neccessary to fill in

[Renee]

I have a form called Service Request F; we enter the services requested for
each unit into this form. Once the service has been done/fixed at a later
date I need to associate a shop work order number to the service request so
that it shows up on the report I have to print. So I added a lookup field to
my service request table so that I can connect the services requested to the
shop work order and added the field to my form. The problem I am having is
that when I try to enter the service requested it says that I cannot add or
change a record becasue a related record is required in table "shop work
order". Is there anyway I can change this so that I can enter the services
requested without having to enter something in the field that is associated
to the shop work order table?

 

[Jeff Boyce]

Renee

Based on your description, Access is trying to tell you that you cannot use
a ShopWorkOrderNumber that doesn't already exist in that table. How are
your ShopWorkOrderNumbers created, and when?

Regards

Jeff Boyce
Microsoft Office/Access MVP

 

[Renee]

The shop work order numbers are set up as auto numbers and are the primary
key in the shop work order table. They get generated when the services are
fixed on a unit so it could be up to a month after the service request went
in that a shop work order number gets generated.

 

[Jeff Boyce]

Renee

Access "Autonumbers" are not good candidates for numbers that will be
seen/used by humans. Autonumbers work great to uniquely identify rows,
however, when you do not have a strong "natural" key.

Regards

Jeff Boyce
Microsoft Office/Access MVP